Radiative lifetime measurements and oscillator strengths of astrophysical interest in HoIII

Radiative lifetimes of three long-lived levels belonging to the 4f(10)5d configuration of Ho III have been measured, for the first time, using the time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence technique. A good agreement between the experimental lifetimes and theoretical results obtained within a multiconfigurational pseudo-relativistic Hartree-Fock (HFR) approach including core-polarization (CP) effects is observed provided an adequate scaling factor is applied to the <4f|r|5d> transition matrix element. From the comparison theory-experiment, it has been possible to assess the reliability of the oscillator strengths of the 4f-5d transitions of astrophysical interest, particularly for the lines depopulating the levels considered in the present work. The present results fill in a gap concerning the f-values of doubly ionized holmium and are needed for a quantitative evaluation of the holmium abundance in some peculiar stars.